THE HUMBLE BITTER HERB ‘KIRATA’ IS FAMILIAR TO MOST GOANS…also called andrographis (Andrographis paniculata), widely used in traditional medicine to treat ailments ranging from common colds and flus to indigestion, herpes simplex virus, joint pain, arthritis and it is a potent anti-cancer and anti-diabetes herb. Grows wildly but is now cultivated too with good reason!!

HOW many bitters are there in your diet? From the research which has been going on we need bitters in our diet and in fact in the Winter 2024 issue of “Well Being Journal” (my USA sister brought me a few copies during a recent visit) there’s this article titled “7 Proven Health Benefits of Andrographis.” What is Andrographis, I wondered, for the illustration accompanying the article presented a familiar plant to us in Goa and the Konkan coast – familiarly called “chirette” or “kalmegh” or “kirata.” A bitter herb, as bitter as…no, not hell, hell is supposed to be hot, not bitter. So as bitter as….no, more bitter than fenugreek seeds and greens, more bitter than bitter gourd maybe, what else is bitter? Neem leaves. We have quite a few bitters although most of us curl up our nose and refuse to drink any of them, too bad.
This is to say most of our bitters do us a lot of good and the humble kirata is a Konkan traditional herbal medicine known for anti-antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties, add on all the other anti labels like anti-carcinogenic. Are all bitter some things anti-carcinogenic? Maybe.
Alex Panossian (Phd, DrSci) in his article describes andrographis (Andrographis Paniculata) as the “king of bitters” and acknowledges that it is widely used as in traditional medicines to treat a variety of ailments from seasonal common colds and flues to indigestion, herpes simplex virus, joint pain and arthritis, cancer and diabetes.
This andrographis has been widely researched and is excellent immunity booster, something we’re interested in nowadays seeing how we’re constantly we’re being warned or threatened about the next dreadful “flu” on the way, worse than Covid19. Except that we know now that Covid19 pandemic flu virus was deliberately released in our environment to infect us so that a new so called vaccine could go on human trial…thousands died around the world and are still are dying courtesy mRNA vaccines and follow-up boosters. The masterminds who inflicted the so called pandemic on humanity still await a trial for crimes against humanity.
BUT to stay with the role of bitters in our life andrographis herbals apparently have compounds which enhance immune protection by stipulating the production of white blood cells…enhance our body’s very own natural defense mechanisms which today’s masterminds seek to control for their own ends to reduce the world to a utopia for the few and dystopia for the many (don’t laugh, quite a few of us are beginning to accept this idea and live in fear of the next pandemic).

Saying it’s a versatile plant the researcher notes a wide pharmacological activities, toxicity profile and therapeutic usage. It seems bitters like andrographis have antiviral effects and can be used to treat a variety of conditions including fever, inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure. So my friends, take a fresh look at the “kirata” plant, some days elders urge us to drink some of its bitter juice, mixed with something like honey may be to sweeten the bitter blow! A couple of times in a year some grandparents also insist the juice of “kadu neem” be given to all to de-worm the household! I remember my own mother insisting on cooking bitter gourd come the winter season and it tasted fabulous with our Guju ghee-laced thin “rotli” or “phulka.” She bitter gourd was scraped, rubbed with sea salt, squeezed after a while and then tempered and cooked – to make it very palatable she would add potato slices and sweeten the bitter gourd with some “gor” or jaggery. I can still remember my mother’s “karela nu shaak” long after she’s gone with the wind…sometimes if there was caju in the kitchen she would toss in a some caju crumble to make the bitter sweet sabzi exotic and more appealing.
SINCE I’m writing about the value of bitters here do you know that there are more receptors to check out bitter on our tongue, a large area at the back of the tongue! The front portion registers sweet, the sides salty, other areas where taste buds check out sour, salty, savory, umami…the tongue is packed with taste buds which are groups of neuroepithelial receptor cells that regenerate rapidly within an average lifespan of eight to 12 days…different regions, different taste buds to check out different tastes, like that. There are taste buds elsewhere too as roof of mouth, even throat.
Fascinating place, the mouth, with its oral fixations or something like that. It was something that EMAIL inventor Dr Shiva Ayyudurai in the US of A was saying in one of his marvelous series on the healing power of super foods…bitters, he said, occupy largest space on tongue, something like 39 taste bud receptors to appreciate bitter food alone. Something like that, go check up his extremely engaging TruthFreedomHealth.com website.
Anyway, this is to say one thing led to another …we know taste is just a bundle of different sensations, or do we. I never thought what an exciting place the mouth could be or rather, is! It is something to do with “chemosensory proteins.” Our basic tastes or elements are seven and they are salt, sweet, sour, bitter, umami, fat and spicy. Yes, if things go bad in body beautiful you will taste metal, rancid, bitters…these may be serious symptoms of a medical condition which affect appetite and quality of life.
I remember my dentist friend Dr Gregory Pereira of Miramar Dental Center once telling me he could smell a rotting mouth from the entrance of his clinic! There’s a medical term for oral disease …dysgeusia (pronounce “dis-gyoo-zee-uh.” Some folk never realize the importance of regular dental health and in any case we don’t know how to eat and drink, it’s one of our horror stories for our times….
BUT to stay with bitters here that bitter is not always toxic (although it can be depending on the alkaloid compounds). Most traditional wisdom says, bitter is a necessary “rasa” and bitter is better – bitter foods aid digestion, help nutrient absorption, stimulate immune function, keep sugar cravings at bay; indeed, bitter is a unique kind of protection gainst cancer, heart disease and diabetes, it reduces our biggest bugbear of inflammation and oxidative stress.

WHICH reminds me on a winding up note here that one of my favorite vishwaguru, Baba Ramdev (who doesn’t know him!) treats diabetic patients who go to his Ayurveda center in Haridwar, amongst other things, with a cocktail of “kakdi, karela, tomato juice”……sounds like a good combo to me, imbibe a little bit of bitters daily to clean up the liver slowly and steadily. I’m all for it! Food is medicine in normal times, okay. Think about it. Don’t shun the bitters or even the bitter memories of life. I think one of these days I’m buying a couple of bitter gourds and doing “karela-nu-shaak” like the way my mother used to regularly at home when she was around. Now gone with the wind. I do miss her despite the good times and the bad times, both my parents.